The Pressplay music service initially received a lot of criticism for its complicated licensing model, and for offering a selection of artists and titles that was not large enough to lure consumers away from piracy options. This earned Pressplay and rival MusicNet the 9th place in PC World's list of the "25 Worst Tech Products of All Time", stating that "the services' stunningly brain-dead features showed that the record companies still didn't get it".[1]

Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment had licensed at least a portion of their catalog to other, more successful online music stores such as Streamwaves' Christian music service HigherWaves, FullAudio and Streamwaves' full product. [2]